I. SIG/III GLOBAL
INFORMATION VILLAGE PLAZA 2002 Session
IV. TRANSCRIPT of
Contributions
The Global Information
Village Plaza was born out of the idea of going beyond the hype, rhetoric and
‘expert’ analysis by the happy few involved in the preparation of policies and
programs supposed to support the transition into the “information society"
or "digital economy.” Instead, it sought to give ASIS&T members -and
information professionals at large- an opportunity to express their views about
the challenges and opportunities that the so called "information society"
represents in their personal and professional lives. Between July and December
2002, individuals were invited to post short position statements and engage in
discussion about these issues on the SIG-III listserv. The position statements
and major discussion threads (originating from the USA, Canada, Europe, Africa
and Latin America) were then summarized by the moderators, Michel Menou and
Nadia Caidi. Poster boards identifying the major themes, along with direct
quotes from the position statements, were then displayed during a special panel
session at the annual ASIST conference in Philadelphia.
Among the recurring themes were: the rise (and challenges) of
multiculturalism and multilingualism; the changing nature of the public sphere;
the strategies for coping with information overload and pollution; the new
patterns of work and social life; the increased opportunities for social
involvement; as well as issues around digital divide and inequalities. At the
professional level, learning was a much discussed theme (e.g., lifelong
learning for information professionals; the switching focus from information
systems toward interactive learning); along with user-friendliness and
reliability of ICT applications; and the role of ICT as instruments of cultural
domination vs. liberation. The role of the information science and technology
community was viewed as essential in leading the change and educating
professionals about information culture and the potential of ICTs. A call for
better ethics, more openness and leadership (“make it safer, simpler, cheaper”)
was made.
During the ASIST session, all attendees were invited
to browse the panels and add their own comments on post-its. A general
discussion ensued, which attested to the usefulness of such a forum. The
overall positive response to the Global Information Village Plaza led to the
decision to have a follow-up. Check the Global Plaza Archive on the SIG-III
website (http://www.asis.org/sig/sigiii) and stay tuned!
Michel Menou and Nadia
Caidi
(January 2003)
[In E. Toms, ed.
(2002). Information, connections and community. Proceedings of the 65th
Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology,
Philadelpjia PA, November 18-21, 2002,vol. 39. Medford NJ, Information Today
for the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 478-479]
Global Information
Village Plaza - Celebrating SIG/III 20th Anniversary
Moderators: Michel J.
Menou
City
University London, Northampton Square EC1V 0HB, London, U.K., menou@soi.ctiy.ac.uk
Nadia Caidi
Faculty
of Information Studies, 140 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3G6, Canada caidi@fis.utoronto.ca
Presenters: ASIS&T
members, especially SIG/III members, and conference attendees
This
session is part of an interactive process aimed at giving ASIS&T members an
opportunity to express their personal views about the challenges and
opportunities that the so called "information society" represents in
their personal and professional lives. This process is due to run from July
through December 2002. It will include posting and discussion by those
interested of short position statements on the ASIS&T and other
professional listservs. Selected statements will be summarized through a series
of panels. During the session participants in the Annual Meeting will be
invited to first browse through the panels and comment in writing. A general
discussion will later on take place. SIG/III plans to publish a summary of the
process and its outcome.
INTRODUCTION
A major feature in the so-called “information society" or else
"digital economy” is its global nature. It is analyzed, described and
commented by many “specialists”. The same specialists and other happy few are
involved in the preparation of policies and programs supposed to support the
transition into this new era. Yet the lay professional public has little
opportunity to express and confront its views. While general economic and
social challenges or current practices are often debated, what do this “new”
society mean and imply for people is more often than not overlooked.
This project aims at providing an opportunity for all ASIS&T members
and information professional at large to express and share their personal views
BEFORE THE ANNUAL MEETING
In July 2002 a call for participation will be issued on all ASIS&T
listservs and possibly other professional lists. People will be asked to send
to the SIG/III list short (300 words
maximum) position statements on the following themes:
1° What in your opinion will be radically changed in your professional
life as a result of the globalization of the information society?
- Why?
- What should you do in order to cope with the change?
- What
should the information science & technology community do to help you and
itself cope with the change?
- What
should the information science & technology community do to help itself
cope with the change?
2° What in your opinion will be radically changed in your personal life
as a result of the globalization of the information society?
- Why?
- What should you do in order to cope with the change?
- What
should the information science & technology community do to help you cope
with the change?
As far as possible statements will be selected and grouped into
clusters. They may also possibly be amended and/or merged, and reposted for
discussion on the SIG/III list. In
preparation for the session the statements and discussions about each main
topic will be summarized in a poster by the moderators.
At the Annual Meeting
During the session at the
Annual Meeting
a) The posters will be
placed on the walls around the room. Participants will be invited to add their
comments on stickers. Participants will be able to move around the room and
contribute to all topics they wish. They will also be able to discuss with
other participants
b) After 40 minutes,
individual discussions will stop. The moderators will summarize the position
statements, or their main concept(s) and proposals.
c) There will then be a
presentation of the position statements by the moderators standing on a
platform in the middle of the room, followed by a general discussion that will
be recorded.
After the Annual Meeting
After
the Annual Meeting the final version of the most significant position
statements will be edited and assembled into a paper for publication in a
professional journal (such as the Bulletin of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology).
[Posted to all ASIS&T listserves and many
professional lists]
Frustrated by the Dot Force, Dot Opportunity, Dot
Future, Dot For-All, Dot You-Name-It?
Join the Global Information Village Plaza
Celebrating ASIS&T SIG/III 20th Anniversary
Apologies
for duplication. Please forward to all relevant lists and colleagues.
A
major feature in the so-called “information society" or else "digital
economy” is its global nature. This aspect is analyzed, described and commented
upon by many “specialists”. The same specialists and other happy few are
involved in the preparation of policies and programs supposed to support the
transition into this “new era”.
Yet
the lay professional public has little opportunity to express and confront its views
in a truly open and participative fashion, unbiased by corporate, political or
career stakes. While general economic and social challenges or current
practices are often debated, what do this “new” society mean and imply for
people is more often than not overlooked.
This
event will provide a unique opportunity for all ASIS&T members and
information professionals at large to express and share their personal views.
How to participate
First: Send to the SIG/III
discussion list sigiii-l@asis.org a
short (300 words maximum) position
statement on the following questions:
1°
What in your opinion will be radically changed in your professional life as a
result of the globalization of the information society?
- Why?
- What should you do in
order to cope with the change?
- What should the information science & technology
community do to help you and itself cope with the change?
- What should the information science & technology
community do to help itself cope with the change?
2°
What in your opinion will be radically changed in your personal life as a
result of the globalization of the information society?
-
Why?
-
What should you do in order to cope with the change?
- What should the information
science & technology community do to help you cope with the change?
Second: Comment on the
statements posted on the lists
Third: Attend the session at
the ASIS&T Annual Meeting (Philadelphia, PA, November 18-21, 2002 http://www.asist.org/conferences)
and participate in the discussions
Fourth: React to the summary
that will be posted on the SIG/III discussion list after the session.
Contribute to the editing of the paper(s) that will be published later on.
What will happen at the
ASIS&T Annual meeting ?
A few weeks before the
moderators will summarize the statements and discussions about each main topic
into posters. A general poster with the list of topics will be placed in the
registration area so that attendees can put stickers with their ideas and
suggestions throughout the conference.
AT THE SPECIAL SESSION “GLOBAL INFORMATION PLAZA”
a) Topic posters will be
placed on the walls around the room. Participants will be invited to add their
comments on stickers. Participants will be able to move around the room and
contribute to all topics they wish. They will also be able to discuss with
other participants
b)
About the middle of the session, individual discussions will stop. The
moderators will summarize the position statements, or their main concept(s) and
proposals.
c) There will then be a
presentation of the position statements by the moderators standing on a
platform in the middle of the room, followed by a general discussion that will
be recorded.
Don’t miss the opportunity to say your word. It might
not change the course of history but it may make you feel better.
The
moderators: Michel J. Menou (Department of Information Science, City University
London, menou@soi.ctiy.ac.uk ) and
Nadia Caidi (Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto, caidi@fis.utoronto.ca)
Below is the compilation of the contributions received in the 2002 run;
The text in italic corresponds
to postings added on-site during the panel session at the Annual Meeting, or
made through oral comments. Some sentences were slightly edited.
The subtitles under each question and the sorting of individual
contributions under them is the responsibility of the moderators. Obviously the
various themes have close connections one with another.
AMAZING IS N'T IT?
·
Can’t say; the subject is far
too broad – global – for me to offer any meaningful feedback. Could not we
consider some more specific aspects?
·
Rather than focusing on whether globalization is
'good' or 'bad', I feel it is more useful to understand that it is both,
simultaneously.
·
The best
metaphor for the Internet is “a global bazaar”
·
I am referring to globalization in most of my
lectures, talks and publications. I even suggested the concept of “documentary
globalization”.
·
It is now possible to read, immediately after its publication,
Tom Wilson’s review of the Brazilian collection "Inteligência
organizacional e competitiva, organized by Dr. Kira Tarapanoff, one of our most
remarkable professors and researchers. In addition, it is possible to talk to
Michel Menou, in Portuguese, right from our personal mailboxes.
LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY
·
Globalization tends to impose English as the main
language. But it remains for many people a foreign language. This is in fact
reducing access to information for those who don’t master English well enough.
In scientific information (publishing, databases, conferences) English is
dominating, even when the majority of participants are not English
speakers.
·
Eventually
multi-national groups have to renounce to collaborating with English speaking
partners in order to avoid that the use of the other languages will vanish in
practice.
·
And the earth was of one language ...
·
I have a superstitious fear of a revisitation of
Babel. There may be forces in the diffusion of English which will/have
transformed English itself, but restrained by the continuing dissemination of
North American forms/norms. Consider (and contrast) the transformation of Latin
in Carolingian Europe.
·
If the information professionals are required to learn
foreign language to serve in multicultural communities, this would be a great
burden to them and make their career even harder than before.
·
The only country in which language learning is not
encouraged is the US !!
·
Everyone should learn some foreign language, not just
information professionals
·
Language barriers must be broken if you want global
participation. Therefore tools which translate metadata or indexing data at the
word level must be developed in a revolutionary way
·
Collection and translation of non-Englishresearch
papers is very slow and time consuming. Translation software has to be more
specific (e.g. scientific language, business language)
MULTI CULTURALISM
·
The global digital environment provides easy tools to
make global communication easier; however, at the same time, it raises
problems, such as cultural and language barriers in the communication or
sharing the human resources from one culture or country to another.
·
The Internet provides us with information that would
not otherwise be available and at a rapid speed but we are aware some of this
information can be undependable and misleading. It is quite a task in our
culture to shift through Internet and print sources for quality and reliability
especially when relating to material from countries whose material we lack a good
knowledge and experience with.
·
It is a chance for libraries if they develop national
resources that can be at the same time used by every one on the globe.
·
The passing on of information has become more complex
when we are dealing with materials from other lands. Almost all material that
we locate is influenced by the cultural and society that the material comes
from. The wording of documents the very nature of the material is very much a
product of the society that has ‘ownership’ of this material.
·
As an archivist, I have a radical new opportunity to
bring my archives, its contents and contexts, to the global information
society. If I do this with sensitivity for my culture and other cultures,
presenting my archives in a fashion appropriate to international perspectives,
I can ensure that something of my community's culture and its diversity is
represented.
·
At least in Canada we live in a multi-ethnic society
and thus people from all over the world have an interest and desire to obtain
information and material on their country and culture. Because they are living
away from home they often want to maintain ties with their homeland and
information professionals are asked to help them gain access to pertinent
material that is of interest to them. As well, many others wish to learn about
other lands.
·
From the lack of nuance in a formal e-mail, to the
pressures of a real-time overseas video conference, to the awkwardness of an
operator-assisted relay call for the hearing impaired, we encounter
opportunities for culturally based miscommunication every day. And while it is
impossible and unproductive to anticipate and accommodate some sort of
etiquette for every such eventuality, each encounter of this sort does tend to
underscore the difficulty of communicating effectively across cultural lines.
·
A community's archives stand as evidence of its
culture - in all its variety - and are witness to cross-cultural interactions.
Therefore, they can actively balance the tendency of globalisation to reduce
cultures to simplistic, superficial components -- demanding an international
social protocol. Instead, archivists can emphasise the need to expand
communications strategies, to adopt pluralist perspectives, and most
importantly, to learn how others communicate and why.
·
Globalisation is often seen as the negative,
overwhelming outcome of information technologies that allow the world to
communicate, but which also force cultural variability to be reduced to
simplistic common denominators and complex human interactions to the binary
abstraction of bits and bytes. However, the technology adopted by the global
information society does support the microcosm of the community.
BECOMING INFORMATION RICH AT A CLICK
·
The globalization of the information society will
grant access to vital information, resources, links and funding for the smooth
operation of grassroot based Non-Governmental Organizations who need training
of field staff, reading materials; for instance those involved in HIV/AIDS
campaigns shall benefit from the wealth of information and solutions available
for the control and management of this calamity facing mankind.
·
It's difficult to imagine how we managed without the
wealth of information that the Internet makes available. The task is now to further harness it's power.
·
With the touch of a computer key, a world of known and
unknown trivia, facts and knowledge is revealed. I can access information from around the world without a formal
or lengthy research process.
·
Perhaps the greatest impact of the globalization of the
information society on my personal and professional life will be the use of the
Internet. There is such a wealth of information instantly available to
individuals.
·
We live in a world that is bombarded with various
types of information from a huge number of sources, which is truly astounding.
·
I am a 40 years old Information Science specialist and
I was waiting for the Global Information Society changes which means I am not
so surprised by the events. I think there are many positive changes in the
field of libraries, especially the possibility to have quick and global access
to any kind of information and to send mails and comments to colleagues all
over the world. And this is developing so fast. It's incredible.
·
The increase in the manufacture of diverse information
resources and their widespread availability through relatively inexpensive
mediums such as the Internet, are positive by-products of the information
society.
·
To become rich at a click the poor need first to have
computers, connection, to be educated, etc. …
COPING WITH INFORMATION OVERLOAD & POLLUTION
·
The major hurdle that I see in my future career will
be overload. There will be so much
information available that it will take forever just to sort through it all to
find the relevant information.
·
Globalization ensures that masses of information are
available internationally. Screening
this mass for quality, appropriateness, and applicability to user needs is
daunting; librarianship’s field is forever expanding and changing. What makes the field stimulating also makes
for huge challenge.
·
Certainly, I'll have a responsibility to make clients
aware of the potential shortcomings of information found through the internet,
helping them to evaluate the material that's available.
·
But, the internet poses challenges to its users. The sheer amount of information available
can be overwhelming. I sometimes feel
information- saturated. The
classification and authority of the internet have not yet been standardized so
finding pertinent, current and accurate information is not guaranteed. Indeed, websites and information seen today
might have disappeared by tomorrow.
These issues will certainly affect me both as an individual and as an
information professional.
·
Firstly, may I suggest the term for discussions not
related to radically changes. Yes, changes are huge, but we can indicate more
evolutionary process, which is related to reinventing ourselves and rethinking
our possibilities. Technologies helped a lot and it is possible to understand
what was lost. We are loosing channels of communication and our functional
activities are so much related to sending data from one place to another.
·
Sometimes it is not useful at all, besides, we are
loosing quality in many areas. Optimistic prognosis may be mentioned because of
chances to play "win-win" game, navigate intellectual capital and
participate in all-life lasting learning.
·
With the achievement of vast quantities of information
has come the need to shift our emphasis from simply finding information to understanding
its origins, perspectives, and bias.
The information profession should consciously recast its role to
emphasize the need for a greater understanding of the social contexts of the
information resources now being produced for public consumption.
·
“Information rich” or “Information flood”? How about
spams?
SAVING THE PuBLIC SPHERE
·
I find globalization’s move toward the privatization
of information access worrisome. “An institution that allows the individual to
access information at no cost [is] viewed as a threat to…profits… The library’s
role in keeping information in the public sphere is…marginalized”
·
Information is a knowledge-enabler, but globalization
is making it a purchasable good. This
playground of the rich makes for an unacceptable “computer-generated caste
system”. (Koltusky, 2001,
http://slis.ualberta.ca/cap01/laura/ithome.htm.)
·
To hold this in check, librarianship’s value-free
stance must go.
·
Technology is not a neutral medium. Libraries must
work hard to protect free access to high-quality information.
·
With the globalization of the information society
comes an idea of diffusion and dissemination – or democratization and spreading
of knowledge – which imposes itself to all people and claims to be achieved.
So, there’s one central word related to this new scenery and to these new
demands: access. Not necessarily free access. Only access. And although there
are many ways of having access to what is being done and spoken in other
regions of the world in each moment, the most important of them seems to be a
new way of thinking.
·
The technological infrastructure should not be
the only concern. Even more important is the content of information and its
ability to support knowledge creation. The global information society is more
concerned with the accumulation and distribution of stocks of information. The
production of knowledge requires appropriation of the contents, what is in
essence an individual process
·
What about the role of public libraries for
information literacy.
·
Once we adopt the business cycle of information
we begin to neglect those who can’t aford. To some extent we still need to
adopt the “free” approach. Or else we further disconnect communities
TECHNOLOGY PUSHING CHANGES
·
It gives me access to state-of-the-art technical information,
the possibility of downloading and trying out new specialized software which
would never have been available on the local market.
·
These empowering instruments allow me to find new,
smarter solutions to the local problems we face in our professional day to day
work. This has been exciting and rewarding.
·
On the negative side, the pace of technological change
and the inbuilt obsolescence of the ICT market is a permanent source of
frustration as it constantly outruns my capacity to absorb it.
·
The deployment of Ipv6 will have drastic consequences
at both macro-economic and societal levels; they need to be paid high
attention.
·
While the world has become a smaller place, in the
sense that people with access to information technology no longer experience
certain boundaries and limitations when searching and obtaining information,
our existence is often forced to adapt to the new technology.
·
The globalization of the information society has
affected my professional role for years; however, the pace of ICT advancement
has created significant changes.
·
In our rush to adopt new and farther-reaching
technologies, sometimes we forget that these technologies are just the tools,
and that the goal is to communicate with the people beyond use of the
technology.
·
Libraries have seen remarkable changes in recent years
due to the influx of new technology.
·&n